A Letter to Origen from Africanus About the History of Susanna

Greeting, my lord and son, most worthy Origen, from
Africanus.1 In your sacred discussion with Agnomon
you referred to that prophecy of Daniel which is related
of his youth. This at that time, as was meet, I accepted
as genuine. Now, however, I cannot understand how it
escaped you that this part of the book is spurious.
For, in sooth, this section, although apart from this
it is elegantly written, is plainly a more modern forgery.
There are many proofs of this. When Susanna is condemned
to die, the prophet is seized by the Spirit, and cries
out that the sentence is unjust. Now, in the first
place, it is always in some other way that Daniel prophesies-by
visions, and dreams, and an angel appearing to him,
never by prophetic inspiration. Then, after crying
out in this extraordinary fashion, he detects them
in a way no less incredible, which not even Philistion
the play-writer would have resorted to. For, not satisfied
with rebuking them through the Spirit, he placed them
apart, and asked them severally where they saw her
committing adultery. And when the one said, "Under
a holm-tree" (prinoj), he answered that the angel
would saw him asunder (prisein); and in a similar fashion
menaced the other who said, "Under a mastich-tree"
(sxhinoj), with being rent asunder (sxhisthenai). Now,
in Greek, it happens that "holm-tree" and
"saw asunder," and "rend" and "mastich-tree"
sound alike; but in Hebrew they are quite distinct.
But all the books of the Old Testament have been translated
from Hebrew into Greek.

2. Moreover, how is it that they who were captives among
the Chaldaeans, lost and won at play, thrown out unburied
on the streets, as was prophesied of the former captivity,
their sons torn from them to be eunuchs, and their
daughters to be concubines, as had been prophesied;
how is it that such could pass sentence of death, and
that on the wife of their king Joakim, whom the king
of the Babylonians had made partner of his throne?
Then if it was not this Joakim, but some other from
the common people, whence had a captive such a mansion
and spacious garden? But a more fatal objection is,
that this section, along with the other two at the
end of it, is not contained in the Daniel received
among the Jews. And add that, among all the many prophets
who had been before, there is no one who has quoted
from another word for word. For they had no need to
go a-begging for words, since their own were true;
but this one, in rebuking one of those men, quotes
the words of the Lord: "The innocent and righteous
shall thou not slay." From all this I infer that
this section is a later addition. Moreover, the style
is different. I have struck the blow; do you give the
echo; answer, and instruct me. Salute all my masters.
The learned all salute thee. With all my heart I pray
for your and your circle's health.

Ever since the dawn of modern rationalism, skeptics have sought to use textual criticism, archaeology and historical reconstructions to uncover the "historical Jesus" -- a wise teacher who said many wonderful things, but fulfilled no prophecies, performed no miracles and certainly did not rise from the dead in triumph over sin.

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Who is the dreaded beast of Revelation? Now at last, a plausible candidate
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Just what is “Calvinism?” Does this teaching make man a deterministic robot and God the author of sin? What about free will? If the church accepts Calvinism, won’t evangelism be stifled, perhaps even extinguished? How can we balance God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility? What are the differences between historic Calvinism and hyper-Calvinism? Why did men like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon, Whitefield, Edwards and a host of renowned Protestant evangelists embrace the teaching of predestination and election and deny free will theology?

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The Real Jesus:
A Defense of the Divinity and Historicity of Christ
is now available! This is a two hour, ten minute presentation debunking the myths about Jesus propogated by liberal theologians, which seem to be repeated endlessly in the popular media. You can order the newly expanded and improved DVD version hosted by Eric Holmberg and view some video clips from "Podcast" version as well ...